The thoughts of a young man as he wanders through his existence, searching for God, love, life, and people.

Friday, March 30, 2007

To Hell and Back

Sometimes I wonder what hell is probably like...yesterday, through a dream, I think I found. Hell didn't seem to be a place where things are burning with the proverbial lake of fire. No, it's not quite that blatant in its torment. But rather, in my dream, hell's torment was far, far more subtle than that.

People are innately social creatures, and accordingly, we are in need of various human interactions. Without others, I believe people become empty and our lives become meaningless. Well, in the dream, hell was exactly that--a meaningless, empty eternal existence. My version of hell: it's a "place," like any other. There are other people--except they don't see you. You see them, but they don't see you. They don't know you exist. They don't love you. You can't love them. You can't talk to them. You can't hold them, hug them, tell them about your day. Even your closest friends you will see--but you will not be able to interact. You cannot comfort them, you cannot cry with them, and you cannot love them.

To me, that is hell--away from all that God has created. All the love, people, and community God has created for us to live under. Then, I got to thinking...this "hell" that God painted for me last night in my dream, exists here on earth. Some here, especially in the states, don't interact with people. They spend their entire lives working...creating their own version of hell. Why do we do that? It also got me thinking about how important it is to share the love of God. A person's existence on Earth is their one chance to experience the love of God, or they are otherwise banished to an existence in "hell." So, I thought--some people work their whole lives in a self-created hell, rejecting God...and then they go off to eternal hell? That sucks. And, on the flip side...if we think about it, if we have God here, we experience God here. We experience love...almost a heaven on Earth thing. Then we get to go to eternal heaven? That's a heck of a deal. I want to love people the way Christ loved people, and tell them about Christ. So then, they can live life now, love now, experience joy now...and then do it million-fold throughout eternity.